It was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.
~ The Book of Acts, 11:26

In one of my earliest published blogs, I explore how hitching well-understood words together like boxcars on a train purposefully hijacks our lexicon and cunningly addles essential communication. Meaning that needlessly appending an unnecessary qualifier to a well-understood word does not enhance the description of that word but rather intentionally obfuscates the original meaning.

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For example, the word justice is clearly defined, well-understood, and carries robust meaning. But ask a dozen people to define social justice and expect 13 different answers. Justice needs no concatenated descriptor when held in its original and historical meaning. Likewise, attempt to garner consensus definitions for systemic racism, climate equity, white privilege, gender-affirming, or Christian Nationalism and be prepared for quarreling and chaos — which is precisely the aim.

This is not to say that the nature of these words does not include serious issues worthy of our attention. Still, once language has been willfully crippled, there is little hope of thoughtful communication.

There is a maniacal brilliance in scooping up the English lexicon, shaking it up in a Yahtzee cup, and splaying it across the tabletop of our culture like rock salt on ice. The result? That which was once firm and solid begins to dissipate and crack under our feet. 

By confusing and disabling clear thought and debate via linguistic hegemony, we are being pummeled to believe the ominous, cultural dragons that were systematically slain in past generations with great price have been hiding alive and well in plain sight all along. There is no choice but to resurrect the conversations put to grave long ago, unsheathe our swords, and begin wildly taking swipes at the mist dragons, only to realize the wounds being inflicted are not on some systemic behemoth; but upon one another.
~ Taken From Words Matter, February 2021

These overused bromides are not the language of the Kingdom of God. When I hear these boxcar phrases hissed and bandied about, I don’t hear the Shepherd’s voice but the stranger’s. Jesus tells us never to follow the stranger’s voice.

Similarly, the bundled term Progressive Christianity has been a splinter under my nail for many years for two primary reasons. First, if there was ever a word that needed no prefixed appendage, it’s Christian. Second, I believe the Progressive Christian movement is doing irreparable harm by confusing, dividing, and weakening the church.

According to Alisa Childers, Progressive Christianity has its ancestry in the Emergent Church Movement and seeks to reinterpret the Bible, reassess historical doctrines, and redefine the core tenets of the faith.

When I think of Progressive Christianity, I think of a low holding of sin and a high holding of culture. A low holding of scripture and a high holding of self-actualization. A low holding of repentance and a high holding of affirmation. A low holding of the Majesty of Christ and a high holding of the innate goodness of humanity.

Progressive Christians continually chide their orthodox brethren for being too political. However, if you remove politics from Progressive Christianity, there is little meat left on the bone. For the vast majority of progressives I follow on social media, to remove their posts on culture, politics, and ideology, their feeds would be left devoid of the greatness of God or the spread of His Kingdom here on Earth.

They will tell you that the centerpiece of their theology is love, yet when the allyship test is applied, they exhibit little restraint while hurling personal insults and vitriolic slurs at fellow believers who dare challenge their philosophies.

This may be the rare case when a prefixed qualifier helps define terms. The love of God we behold in scripture and in the life of Jesus is unconditional, sacrificial, and self-giving. Yet, progressive love, as displayed in the marketplace, is quite different. When asked what is the first and greatest progressive commandment:

Love yourself with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor for yourself. 

Watching the Progressive Christian movement, I see levels of activism mostly indistinguishable from secular activism. The progressive movement is fixated on social justice warring, pro-abortion (or at least a “nuanced” view which does not hold the life of the baby as tantamount), and has some allegiance with the anti-racist movement as defined by Robin DiAngelo and Ibram X Kendi.

Like secular progressives, progressive Christians fawn over climate catastrophism, defend open borders and lawlessness, and promote confused and mixed philosophies around gender and sexuality. Progressive Christianity fosters strong suspicion for historic orthodoxy and biblical inerrancy, and weak expression for glory and holiness. The movement discerns little to no understanding of the threats of Globalism, and of course, the new glue that unifies their cause is: never, ever anything Trump.

While Christianity starts with theology to formulate its politics, Progressive Christianity starts with politics and then formulates its theology around it.

Rendered to its essence, it is a brand of faith that adapts to the culture and demands the church make compromised accommodations rather than injecting into culture the transformative power of Christ.

I am not a progressive if you haven’t spotted my breadcrumbs yet. And, like many of you, I have lost friends because of it. I’ve lost decades-long friends not for anything I’ve done but for simply writing about my thoughts and convictions.

Perhaps, at times, I write with a sharp blade that can cut. Progressives write much softer, but some quills have been dipped in poison. You can always heal from a cut.

After a recent social media dust-up, I invited a combative reader to walk through a recent post I made line by line. In that particular post, I sharply criticized the Progressive Christian movement by displaying a quote from a well-known progressive pastor who regularly gets over a million views on his Tweets. Here is an excerpt of what I wrote:

Affirm LGBTQIS2S+ children, avoid any offering of rigorous counseling and healing, then attack the believers who want to protect these children from porn, hormones, and scalpels. 

Affirm abortion, avoid any discussion about sexual ethics or self-control, and then attack the believers who want to save the lives of the resulting innocent babies. 

Affirm open borders, avoid any reference or adherence to state and federal laws currently on the books, ignore the trafficking, rape, crime, embezzlement, and murders that illegal immigration causes both here and abroad, and then attack the believers who think it’s a better idea to secure the border and only allow select foreigners to enter legally. 

Affirm the Marxist constructs of race and equity, pretend as if the scriptures teach us to view the world through a lens of anti-racism, privilege, and oppression, and then attack the believers who are not racists and believe every person is created in the image of God. 

“Watch out! Beware the leaven of Herod!” ~ Mark 8:15

The reader refused to discuss with me any of these cherished platforms held by the progressives.

When I write, there are often pages of thought behind each sentence. This means that I choose my words carefully and intentionally. Over these past few years, I’ve sat down with many angry readers. After welcoming their initial emotional release and their angst is diffused, I try to walk them through what I’ve written line by line. In almost every case, they admit agreement. But they will maintain that I shouldn’t write what I write.

Many who quietly follow me have told me I must have thick skin. In some measure, it’s true, but sometimes the punch lands, and any pride in a thickened hide risks nurturing a hardened heart.

I read an inordinate amount of content that I firmly disagree with to understand better those who do. I just finished John Pavlovitz’s book, If God Is Love Don’t Be A Jerk (2021). He is a thought leader in the Progressive Christian space, so my goal was to have my footings tested, my angles trued, and my support beams exposed to the elements. The book was so abysmally disappointing that I was neither challenged nor inspired.

I would offer to let you borrow it, but each page has more handwritten notes than words from the author. But as a tasteless sampler, these are excerpts from just two pages of this book:

. . . pulpit pounding pastors who exclude, wound and do harm . . . human rights violations, overt racism and rabid nationalism . . . Franklin Graham alt-right Proud Boys, discriminatory bathroom bills, Muslim bans . . . misogyny, bigotry, homophobia . . . wall builders, transphobes, white supremacists . . . immigration and black lives matter protests . . . gun-toting preachers, damnation-wielding social media trolls and predatory presidents.

When we read the glorious Edenic account in the third chapter of Genesis, which describes the sound of the Lord moving through the Garden in the spirit-filled time of day, I don’t imagine Adam and Eve hearing any of these dulcet terms harrumphing through the Garden.

The best thing about finishing this book was my heightened eagerness to rest in the Spirit, soak in the scriptures, and steep in the writings of the Church Fathers. In other words, my mind and my heart needed a refreshing shower.

As I follow these progressive leaders, I don’t catch Christ’s aroma or the Spirit’s movement. I can’t remember a testimony of a progressive who miraculously healed someone, accurately prophesied, or cast a demon out of a tortured soul. The Gifts of the Spirit don’t make for compelling yard signs or controversial memes.

You ought to say plainly that you do not believe the gospel of Christ. For to believe what you please, and not to believe what you please, is to believe yourselves and not the gospel.

~ St. Augustine

We are Hand-wired to resonate with the eternal, surge with the supernatural, and marvel at the mystical. The progressives frequently remind us of Jesus flipping tables at the temple, but this is precisely their shortcoming—they revel in the dusty commotion of the Outer Courts but have never been facedown in the Holy of Holies.

The Apostle Paul gives us the key to life here on Earth: Don’t you know that you are a temple of God? Western Evangelicalism places great emphasis on the externalities of our faith, which is precisely where Christ flips our precious displays. In the interior life, His love thrives, holiness resides, and union with God grows. And from that chamber of unitive exchange, we emerge back into the dusty commotion and are no longer confused about what to bless and what to cast out.

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Keith Guinta blogs at www.winepatch.org. He is a husband and father, and he has been a worship leader and church planter. Photo Credit: Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=89905909.